Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasound transmitting circuit including an electrical transmitter from which electrical oscillations, formed of a current signal and a voltage signal, can be fed at an electrical transmission power level over a connecting line into an ultrasound transducer that can be excited by the electrical oscillations to produce ultrasound oscillations.
Such an ultrasound transmitting circuit is used, for example, in therapeutic ultrasound arrays. The use of ultrasound arrays is dependent on a specific amplitude relationship, in addition to a specific phase relationship, between the individual ultrasound transducers in the ultrasound array. Major deviations from the predetermined relationship may cause serious deviations from the desired beam, which, under some circumstances, may even result in injuries to personnel.
The total power level fed in from the electrical transmitter can, in general, be preset very precisely. However, the individual ultrasound transducers have an impedance which, on one hand, is subject to major tolerances from one ultrasound transducer to another by virtue of the production techniques and, on the other hand, also varies dynamically as a function of the type of operation. Due to those impedance variations, the distribution of the transmitted ultrasound amplitudes deviates to a major extent from the predetermined electrical amplitude distribution of the individual electrical transmitters.